Calling for some time-out is a legitimate response
if you receive negative feedback

There are a number of disappointments in
business that you may need to deal with in your career, and one common one is receiving
negative or unexpected feedback about your performance.

Ideally, you want to try and avoid any nasty surprises like this by continually monitoring and evaluating your performance. Being aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and taking remedial action when you need to.

However, sometimes things go wrong, circumstances change or others have different expectations of us from what we understood and all of a sudden we are blind-sided by negative feedback.

Here's 5 Fast Tips to file away and draw on if this ever happens to you:

1. Acknowledge what has
been said - thank the person for
their comments (and take a deep breath)

2. Askquestions and clarify your understanding of exactly what has been said. Sometimes when we hear something negative we stop listening in shock or whilst we are framing our response. Make sure you know exactly what the issue is.

3. Ask for time-out if your need it. To think about what has been said or to gather more information. Just don't use this time to gossip or whinge about what has gone on.

4. Go into solution mode
and take action - work this through with the person who has delivered the feedback and gain their agreement. This could be anything from resolving an issue to enrolling
in a course to develop your skills. If you have legitimate reasons for what has happened, or the other person doesn't know the full story - make sure this is known. Just don't come across as defensive. Do it in terms of resolving the issue.

5. Be honest with yourself and evaluate what you have
learnt, mentally file away the
experience, and - move on!

If you can - be calm, logical and self-confident,
whether you feel that way or not!

Have you any tips to share on handling negative feedback? Let's chat...